1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of manufacture of a lattice designed elastomer screen body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Elastomer screen bodies are well known. They are employed on shaker screen boxes for classification, cleaning, and dewatering of fragmented stocks of hard material such as stone, coal, aggregate, sand, and the like. Elastomer screens are substituted for the conventional metal screen bodies such as wire and punch plate screens. When properly applied, these elastomer screen bodies outlast the said metal screen bodies in wear life by five to ten times.
The said metal type screens create din and noise from the charging of such screens, by the bouncing and tumbling of hard material when employed in shaker boxes for classification of fragmented hard stock material. This has been a source of noise pollution in and around the work place, which is alleviated by the substitution of an elastomer screen body such as, a polyurethane or a rubber material screen body, for the said metal type screen. These elastomer screens absorb the charging shock forces of the said hard material being sifted, eliminating much of the noise factors created by said usage of metal type screen bodies.
Some of the benefits of elastomer screen bodies are readily seen above. Yet, the process of manufacture of the prior art elastomer screen bodies involve complicated molding processes, further complicated by the requirement of the manufacture to make and have available sieves or screens having mesh sizes, sometimes square, sometimes round, sometimes elongate, in as many as a hundred sizes. The original or investment costs of such molds and processing is extremely high. Some prior structures have employed laminations of elastomer sheets vulcanized to metal sheets of large size properly punched or apertured for the sizing required. The method of punching or perforating to attain an aperture size in said elastomer sheets requires a multitude of custom made punches, custom made tools, and custom made machinery, which the original investment costs for a manufacture is extremely high. These disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention.